CNN: Children forced into cell-like school seclusion rooms

[Taverner]

MURRAYVILLE, Georgia (CNN) -- A few weeks before 13-year-old Jonathan King killed himself, he told his parents that his teachers had put him in "time-out."
The room where Jonathan King hanged himself is shown after his death. It is no longer used, a school official said.



"We thought that meant go sit in the corner and be quiet for a few minutes," Tina King said, tears washing her face as she remembered the child she called "our baby ... a good kid."

But time-out in the boy's north Georgia special education school was spent in something akin to a prison cell -- a concrete room latched from the outside, its tiny window obscured by a piece of paper.

Called a seclusion room, it's where in November 2004, Jonathan hanged himself with a cord a teacher gave him to hold up his pants. Video Watch Jonathan's parents on their son's death »

Seclusion rooms, sometimes called time-out rooms, are used across the nation, generally for special needs children. Critics say that along with the death of Jonathan, many mentally disabled and autistic children have been injured or traumatized.

<SNIP>

The sad thing is that this came from the "Boot Camp School" movement which uses torture techniques and "seclusion rooms" to break kids in the same way.

[yardwork]

1. OMG.

Just looking at that picture makes me feel claustrophobic. That poor child.

[ogneopasno]

2. Breaking children is a sick and terrible thing. However, it's cheaper and quicker than

putting kids in one-on-one individualized treatment. In this world, guess what wins.

[Taverner]

3. Breaking Kids is torture

Nothing different from what they did at Abu Gharaib and Gitmo

Yet Fundy parents want it done to their kids if they show sings of being gay, or anything that doesn't fit their fucked up idea of what normal should be.

[ogneopasno]

8. Well, it's not just fundy parents.

It goes beyond creed or region.

[Taverner]

10. YEs, but the fundies have a longer list of things that need "breaking"

I've heard of kids being sent to Christian Boot Camps because they questioned the bible.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

4. AREN'T THOSE GEORGIANS JUST THE FINEST FOLKS AROUND

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[Taverner]

5. I'd like to know if the person who locked them in thought they were driving out demons

I mean, that's what Jeebus told them to do :shrug:

[RiverStone]

6. Time out rooms are still very common across the country...

It's a resource issue more than anything.

I don't condone them, but when you have a kid going ballistic and there are no staff to offer individualized monitoring, this becomes the only viable option vs letting them run rampant in the classroom.

I hope people get mad at this!

Because education will continue to suffer until we scrap NCLB and put tons more money into classroom size and special education. Until we (not DU) - but the voting populous believes educating our kids is worth more than fighting needless wars - we will still see inadequate stop-gaps such as the cell (er room) pictured.

[lapfog_1]

7. Was this school run by a "Ms. Trunchbull"?

Because that sure looks like the "Chokey".



What the hell is wrong with these people?

[southernyankeebelle]

9. Wow, what bastards.

I live in a small town. We have a school for children that get in trouble in the main schools. We live in a rural area. My husband would sub at the school. Some of these kids shouldn't even be there. My husband had to write a report on the school when he went to college. They couldn't believe there where schools like this. Kids get into fights and they get sent to the alternative school. They call it the Academy. Sounds really nice huh?. I can tell you if a teacher doesn't like you and you get in enough trouble with that teacher you are gone to the alternative school. This school system is terrible. Its one of those mega high schools. They have principals for each group. My son had a principle that was terrible. I thought we might be able to talk with him because he retired from the national guard and my husband was retired from active duty. We went into his office and he didn't even know who we were. We met with him because they kick my son off the bus for a week because he left a coke can on the bus. I told him there had to be more to this story know one gets thrown off the bus for that. Well he did and the principle said he was lucky it was only a week. I asked why couldn't he do some type of punishment like clean the bus or wash the windows? Some kind of punishment. He wouldn't hear of it. Of course my son always tried to not get in his way because he wore a long chain with a wallet at end and he didn't like that. This is a hillbilly school. I have live all over the world and the US and never experienced a school system like this.

[earth mom]

11. This is more proof that schools can't deal with & don't know how to deal with special needs children

Schools want to medicate these kids to the point that they are zombies and if that doesn't work, they throw them in a fucking cell! :grr:

p.s. Is there a link for the full article/story?

[Taverner]

12. Sorry - FULL LINK HERE

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/17/seclusion.rooms/index.html

And yes, I agree with you. And I'm PRO-DRUG, if the drugs actually work. Usually they are over prescribed.

[earth mom]

17. Thanks for the link.

:hi:

Obviously, I'm anti drug and believe that diet and other types of therapy work much better than throwing a pill at the problem. I think drugs should only be used in extreme situations like self injurious or aggressive behavior.

[Odin2005]

13. This Autistic (Asperger's Syndrome) person is fucking outaged about this!!!

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

Probably run by the same type of people that think we are "poisoned" and "disordered" and thus need be "cured". :puke:

[Taverner]

14. Or "Demon Posessed"

Since that was the diagnosis for most of recorded human history (unless you were in a Native American tribe, where you were thought to be a Shaman)

[happychatter]

15. The funding for education and specialized staff to help disabled children...

... is there. Not that there shouldn't be more. But, it's there and the school districts won't go to the trouble of applying for it... and then when they do? We get horror stories like THIS one.

That poor family... those poor, poor children.

I have a few horror stories of my own here, as do many of you.

Yes, the above poster that mentioned "possession...."

in the Church world, where the "Voucher" advocates would send our education dollars... MANY people believe that ALL diseases and addictions are caused by demons. They call them "Deliverance Ministries," like Sarah Palin's church.

In the alternative... in Public Schools... we get the over-diagnosis of ADD and demands that the kids be medicated (not saying that's NEVER appropriate). OR, we get parochial, ignorant assholes like these folks in Georgia... that think human beings should be trained like fucking lab rats.

What is this deal with the pants? It sounds like perhaps he came from a poor family. It's most often the poor, that get the brunt of these abuses.

It's sickening... ok I'm done... ya'all are smart and don't need my ramblings.

Sometimes I just want to go "Baader-Meinhoff" on these assholes... you know?

[RiverStone]

18. Sorry ---- there is no way enough $$$!

I've spent 20 years on the front-lines in education, and public schools are woefully underfunded. Ask any special education teacher how big his or her caseload is and the volumes of bureaucratic bullshit that they are saddled with. Look at the student to teacher ratios in big cities for regular ed classrooms. Check out recent studies on the physical condition of America's schools; mold, leaks, cracked walls, and leaky plumbing abound.

NCLB has been an unfunded mandate of disastrous proportions that has wasted millions of dollars.

In more well-to-do districts, both space and pace are far better. And IMO, many public school teachers are un-recognized heroes. But on the money question - no ambiguity there - not enough!

On your other points, I agree!

[happychatter]

19. smaller school districts don't want to be bothered to GO get the funds that ARE there

I said there IS money...

I didn't mean to imply we don't need more

[aikoaiko]

16. Regardless of whether the room is a useful tool or not, the child should have monitored

I have mixed feelings about the seclusion room. When I was disruptive, my mother would haul me off to my bedroom, close the door and I didn't come out until I was calm and cooperative. Is this room really that different?

Either way, children must be monitored especially in emotionally difficult situations like being put in a seclusion room.